Music I'm Listening To: Alexander Barantschik and Friends at the Green Music Center

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending another San Francisco Symphony concert at the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park. This was an intimate concert with a focus on the violin. There were only 23 performers on stage--all strings--for most of the concert. I hadn't been especially looking forward to this one, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The concert opened with a crisp performance of the familiar Mozart Divertimento in F Major (K. 138), one of those fairly early Mozart pieces marked by a lively earnestness. Tired at the end of a long day, it was just the thing I needed. Comfort music.

Having scanned the program quickly, I was surprised by the Mendelssohn violin concerto that followed. I had thought Mendelssohn among that group of great composers who wrote only one violin concerto--Beethoven, Sibelius, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky--but it seems I was wrong. Mendelssohn's beloved E minor concerto was not on the program but a piece in D minor--written when Mendelssohn was only 13 years old. I struggled to hear something suggesting the mature composer, despite what the program notes said on the subject, and the piece wasn't especially memorable, but it was interesting to hear, nevertheless. It was premiered only in 1952, by Yehudi Menuhin, according to an interesting Art Hound article I found online by Geneva Anderson about Barantshick and the violin he plays today (the 1742" David" Guarnerius del Gesú, formerly owned by Jascha Heifetz).

After intermission, the group took up Britten's Simple Symphony, among my favorite pieces of music. Call me a philistine, but I love the sound of strings played pizzicato, and this piece features an entire movement without bowing. It was fun to watch the group plucking and strumming. Beautifully played throughout.

The concert would have been worth it for the Britten alone, but a more or less perfect performance of Melodia-Libertango followed, with soloist Seth Asarnow on the bandoneon, a kind of concertina. The piece is credited to Astor Piazzola and Jeremy Cohen. The program notes explain that we heard a Medley of Piazzola's Melodia (composed in 1992, the last year of Piazzola's life) and his Libertango (1973) as arranged for string orchestra by violinist Cohen, the two pieces linked in this form by a violin cadenza composed by Cohen. Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, played the solo violin parts in this piece (and throughout the concert). A pianist and drummer joined the strings for the tangos. Asarnow's playing was exhilarating, but I enjoyed seeing his beautiful instrument as much as I enjoyed hearing the music. It appeared to be made of ebony with mother-of-pearl inlay. A second instrument was at his feet, although he never used it. A back-up? What is the bandoneon equivalent of breaking a string during performance, I wonder?

Photo of Alexander Barantschik courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony. Photo of Seth Asarnow from the Symphony Parnassus website. I'd be delighted to credit the photographer in each case, but no information is given. 

Music I'm Listening To: Leila Josefowicz with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado (October 4, 2013)

Because of work and various other obligations I make this brief and very belated comment on a recent concert in San Francisco. I attended the October 4, 2013 San Francisco Symphony performance at Davies Symphony Hall. The program included the Overture and Passacaille from Armide, by Lully. Three Studies from Couperin, by contemporary composer Thomas Ades, Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, and, after intermission, Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "The Scottish Symphony." This was the first program in a series of three conducted by Spanish guest conductor Pablo Heras-Casado (above) featuring the music of Ades and Mendelssohn--which seems an odd pairing. The common thread conductor Heras-Casado sees in these two men is apparently a fascination with the Baroque.

The Lully piece was forgettable--literally. It's been only a couple of weeks since the concert, but I can't say I remember being moved by the piece at the time, and now I can't recall anything about it. The Ades composition was more interesting, if strange. It had a surreal quality. It sounded like a piece of early 18th century music that had been run through a computer and altered with a set of algorithms. I suppose the brain of Mr. Ades (who was in attendance) was, in fact, the computer that processed the underlying music of Francois Couperin and presented it to us in this new form. I'd have to hear the music again--probably several times--before I could say anything sensible about it, but it was interesting to listen to and probably worth the time to get to know better.

Having heard violinist Leila Josefowicz's exciting performance of Esa Pekka-Salonen's Violin Concerto in San Francisco not long ago (December 8, 2011), I was most eager to hear Ms. Josefowicz play again. I was not disappointed. She played the Stravinsky concerto with the same mixture of fierce determination and sheer delight she showed at the earlier concert. She seemed truly engaged with the orchestra and the conductor, turning to the other performers during her periods of rest--listening, watching, moving subtly with the music--before bursting in to play her solo sections. Overall, the concerto seemed powerfully yet deftly played--and played with a joyful verve that made the piece as much fun to watch as it was to listen to. The Mendelssohn was played impeccably too. Good to have Heras-Casado back in San Francisco again.

Photo of Pablo Heras-Casado courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony (photographer uncredited). Photo of Leila Josefowicz from Internet press kits, but I've been unable to find the appropriate copyright owner to acknowledge.    

Music I'm listening to: Kurt Masur Conducting The San Francisco Symphony

I attended a concert by the San Francisco Symphony last night. Guest conductor Kurt Masur led the orchestra in an all-Mendelssohn program of Symphony No. 4 and the Complete Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Maestro Masur looked a bit frail going to and from the podium, but very much in charge while he was there, getting a very clean, precise, and persuasive performance from the players--hard really to imagine how it could have been better.

I was going to write more, but find myself much distracted by what's going on in Japan, and have to get taxes done by today...

Photo of conductor Kurt Masur courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.